SAWANT: We must decommodify higher education
Column: Sincerely Rue
College is expensive. That goes without saying. Is it worth it then? Here we all are, investing in this experience anyway, so it must be worth it, right? There is a valuable set of benefits that we all acknowledge that the degree promised to us at the end of our program will bring us. I guess what I really want to ask, then, is whether it is worth the exact dollar amount we pay for it.
I was very intentional when I told you that we are investing in this experience because what is the American higher education system if it is not an industry, each university its own corporate entity? And who are we students to our schools if not their high-profile consumers? And what is our education if not a mere commodity?
It was during my junior year of high school, neck-deep in SAT and AP exam preparation, campus visits and extracurricular activities, that I often thought to myself “this seriously cannot be what is going to get me into college.” Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on SAT exams, AP exams, AP subject tests, university applications and extracurricular activities just to even be considered, let alone granted, entry to a university.
Knowledge is such a fundamental part of life. It enables us to make decisions, contribute to society productively and solve global problems. Higher education will never not be a valuable thing, but in my opinion, academia has become too commercialized.
It is this commodification — the paywalling — of higher education that makes university feel less like it is about sharing knowledge and more about filling pockets. I do not mean to imply that colleges exist only to make money, but I do believe that their commitment to education varies based on their profitability.
A corporation that sells bread exists because it obviously wants people to have this bread, but still, it would not sell a loaf to a customer who could not pay for one.
These days, it seems that to survive, humans need food, water, shelter and a college degree. Our world is becoming increasingly globalized by the minute. Labor and information sharing knows no borders, and the job market will continue to grow in size and competitiveness for the foreseeable future.
Now every employer wants its applicants to have a four-year university degree, but not every four-year institution wants to give them out.
If obtaining a job with a livable wage requires a college degree, higher education institutions need to make getting that college degree a realistic endeavor for anyone who wants to do it.
Education is a fundamental right, period. Creating a financial barrier to knowledge by making a product out of an abstract concept, such as a degree, feels like a deliberate attempt to exclude people from academia.
Still, there is a valuable experience in attending university while you learn about your chosen field, and to deny that experience based on financial ability is unfair.
Am I enjoying university and glad I decided to attend? Absolutely. Do I feel like I spent an absurd amount of money during the application process in my junior year of high school and feel like I am overpaying for my education currently? Absolutely. These two sentiments coexist because academia is a business.
Having attended public school for my entire life, I always just assumed education was a public good — it was always guaranteed to me and came at no extra cost to my family because knowledge is everywhere. So I really struggled to wrap my mind around any justification universities had to charge thousands of dollars for knowledge.
The college application process is already so extensive and soul-sucking as it is. After all that work, you expect the least we would get in return is the ability to choose an institution based on which school feels like the perfect fit. But for many of us, our commitment to attend a university heavily involves affordability.
If universities really were all about their proclaimed missions of educating the people of society, then they would not make it so that we have to choose between schools by comparing price tags.
This sector must deconstruct the barbed wire fences around institutions that pierce holes in families' pockets just so their children can go to school. University should not be a club in which the primary membership requirement is having extreme wealth.
People love to tell high school students that college will be the time of their lives (only if they can afford it). People love to tell high school students that they will live their dream life after college (if they are not paying off student debt for most of their adult lives). Society’s downfall is the commodification of education.
You cannot put a price tag on knowledge (which is everywhere) because you effectively regulate the consumption of it. You cannot regulate the consumption of knowledge in the same way you cannot regulate the consumption of, say, air. And if this is the case, I wonder if we really are closer to selling bottles of fresh air than we think.
Rujuta Sawant is a Rutgers Business School sophomore majoring in business analytics and information technology and minoring in political science. Her column, "Sincerely Rue," runs on alternate Mondays.
*Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
YOUR VOICE | The Daily Targum welcomes submissions from all readers. Due to space limitations in our print newspaper, letters to the editor must not exceed 500 words. Guest columns and commentaries must be between 700 and 850 words. All authors must include their name, phone number, class year and college affiliation or department to be considered for publication. Please submit via email to oped@dailytargum.com by 4 p.m. to be considered for the following day’s publication. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
